Color Highlights with Box Hair Color

Coloring hair with box hair color
Photo: Valua Vitaly/Shutterstock
Q: I recently had highlights put in my hair and it was way too much blond and way too light. So I decided to buy a box of brown hair color and do it myself, and I love it except there are still some parts of blond showing through. Is that normal? And if so how many times will I have to dye it and how long should I wait to dye it again?
 
A: You need to remember that the box hair color kits are designed most commonly for singly colored hair. If you look on the packaging, there is usually a chart showing the expected color results based on your hair's natural shade. Even when using darker hair color formulas, these hair colors are designed to add color to the existing hair color.
 
When the hair being covered by these dyes is widely different in its color - some parts very blonde and others darker - the dye deposits its color, and the results will be varied dependent on the original color of the strands. Simply put, you may find that the color of the areas that were very light before are still lighter than the areas where the hair was darker.
 
There is also the fact that the hair that was lightened excessively may be more porous than the rest of the hair and the hair color you add may fade more quickly from these areas.
 
The good news is that if the hair is healthy and in good condition, you can simply add more color until you get the results you want. However, I do suggest that when you recolor, that you add the color to the lighter hair first, wait ten minutes then add the color to the remainder of the hair. This will allow the lighter hair to absorb more color and ultimately balance out the discrepancy in color shades.
 
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See also:
 
How to dye hair
 
Dye over previous hair color with box dye
 
What the numbers on the hair dye boxes mean